Rahonavis
'''Rahonavis '''was an incredible predator in the Primordial Forest. Rahonavis was dromaeosaur that inhabited Madagascar. Dromaeosaurs, called the Raptors, were amongst the most intelligent dinosaurs, and the cleverest hunters. Dromaeosaurs had sickle shaped claws on their feet to rip off the flesh of dinosaurs larger than them, were far more effective predators than even Majungasaurus. Dromaeosaurs were fast dinosaurs that hunted in packs. Rahonavis was a small raptor, and had wings, so it could run fast on land with its long limbs and fly short distances in the sky. Most raptors had wings, but couldn’t fly, unlike Rahonavis. Rahonavis had a sickle shaped claw on each foot, and had a mouth full of razor sharp teeth. Being pack hunters, raptors were successful hunters, and developed many methods of catching prey. Rahonavis was first though to be a bird when it was found, but its sickled shaped claw and toothed jaw told everyone Rahonavis was a raptor. Bird or Raptor Rahonavis has historically been the subject of some uncertainty as to its proper taxonomic position - whether it is a member of the clade Aves or a closely related dromaeosaurid. The presence of quill knobs on its ulna (forearm bone) led initially to its inclusion among the birds; however, the rest of the skeleton is rather typically ]] dromaeosaurid in its attributes. Given the extremely close affinities between primitive birds and their dromaeosaurid cousins, along with the possibility that flight may have developed and been lost multiple times among these groups, it has been difficult to place Rahonavis firmly among or outside the birds. Rahonavis could be a close relative to Archaeopteryx, as originally suggested by the describers, and thus a member of the clade Avialae, but while the pelvis shows adaptations to flight similar in function to those of Archaeopteryx, they seem to be independently derived.Alternately, Makovicky and colleagues considered Rahonavis to be closely related to the South American dromaeosaurids Unenlagia and Buitreraptor, and thus a member of the subfamily Unenlagiinae.Norell and colleagues (2006) also found Rahonavis to lie within the Unenlagiinae, as the sister taxon to Unenlagia itself.A 2007 study by Turner and colleagues again found it to be an unenlagiine dromaeosaurid, closely related to Unenlagia. Similarities to Eoraptor Though Rahonavis was a dromaeosaur, it had many similarities to Eoraptor.Eoraptor had a thin body that grew to about 1 meter (3 ft) in length, with an estimated weight of about 10 kilograms (22 lb). It ran digitigrade, upright on its hind legs. Its fore limbs were only half the length of its hind limbs and it had five digits on each 'hand'. Three of those digits, the longest of the five, ended in large claws and were presumably used to handle prey. Scientists have surmised that the fourth and fifth digits were too tiny to be of any use in hunting. Eoraptor is thought to have been an omnivore.It was a swift sprinter and, upon catching its prey, it would use claws and teeth to tear the prey apart. It had both carnivore-type and herbivore-type teeth. Rahonavis in the Film In the film, Rahonavis was protrayed to have hunted in packs, which there is no fossilized record for, and couldn't fly. Rahonavis was also larger, and more like its cousin the Velociraptor and Deinonychus . *Ah Cuxtal *Rohan's Dinosaur Trivia *Rahonavis's skull has never been discovered. *Rahonavis was only found in Madagascar, not India *The Rahonavis model in the film was a stop motion animation model Category:Dinosaurs Category:Theropods